No regrets?
Regret is an important and constructive emotion in decision making, even for presidential candidates, but at the same time, we are quite capable of neutralizing its influence
Barely a week after the attempt on Republican candidate Donald Trump, the US presidential elections are once again occupying the headlines: president Joe Biden has withdrawn. The controversy over his age and mental condition, following a debate with his Republican rival, had continued to grow in the runup to the Democratic Party convention in the second half of August, when the nominee will officially be decided. Trump continued to lead the polls since the attempt on his life, pouring more oil on the fire of doubt as to whether Biden really was their best chance of winning the election. Yet, without a straightforward formal mechanism to force him to step back, it was ultimately up to Biden to do so voluntarily. For anyone with an interest in decision making, that decision is a most interesting one to examine, especially to understand what was behind the resistance.
Two old men fighting for power
Conventionally, decision making revolves around weighing costs and benefits. When facing a choice between two options, we assess the upsides and downsides of each one, and…
